You Must Create: Berlin Fashion Week at mdh

How Berlin Fashion Week started with you in the room

So what actually happened?
Berlin Fashion Week didn't open with models on a runway this year. It opened with an invitation — to make something. You Must Create was a live, hands-on performance: the audience didn't just watch, they designed.

Who's behind it?
Prof. Natascha von Hirschhausen from mdh created and organised the whole thing — along with her Fashion Management colleague Prof. Nina Hein.

Wait — visitors really got to design too?
Yes, that was the whole point. If you showed up, you weren't a spectator — you were part of it. What everyone made together became both the performance and the exhibition.

What's the bigger idea behind it?
Prof. Natascha's work keeps asking one question: who actually decides how clothing comes into being — and for whom? For years she's pushed back on the industry's "rules" around sizing, gender, and production. You Must Create threw that process wide open — and made the audience part of the answer.

Were mdh students involved?
Yes. Fashion Management students came by, joined the performance, and became part of the exhibition and the crowd designs. The dress forms, by the way, were lent by mdh.

Was there a standout moment?
Definitely. Prof. Natascha opened with the showpiece — a silk gown. Then Gitta Connemann (a top politician: Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, and the Federal Government's Commissioner for the Mittelstand) sat down and created her own design too.

Where did it all take place?
At RAUM.Berlin, an event by Fashion Council Germany — supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (based on a resolution of the German Bundestag) and by cotonea.

If you'd rather create than watch from the sidelines, the Fashion Management programme at mdh might be exactly your thing. 

Apply now for the winter semester — until 30 September.